


It's A Sad Song

by theoddling



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, M/M, post-Season 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:02:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24548848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theoddling/pseuds/theoddling
Summary: The Hargreeves discuss plans for how to stop the apocalypse now that they have a second chance, and Klaus identifies one thing that cannot change.
Relationships: Dave/Klaus Hargreeves
Comments: 5
Kudos: 83





	It's A Sad Song

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Hadestown. Please enjoy some of Major Angst™

“We can’t change everything!” Klaus argued. “I _have_ to still get kidnapped by those creeps in the masks.”

“What? Why?” Allison stared at him like he had just sprouted a second head. 

“Because,” he faltered, realizing that he hadn’t told his siblings what he had been through, because none of them cared. “If I don’t, I can’t steal their magic time-travel briefcase.”  
Five refused to meet his eye.

“Well since we know they’re here and that briefcase is important to stopping them, we’ll just go after it, without you getting tortured.” Of course Luther was presenting the logical approach.

“No! You don’t understand! _I_ have to be the one to take it, so I can open it and…and go back. If I don’t, then…” he felt the tears welling up in his eyes and he wasn’t sure he could finish the sentence out loud. 

‘then I won’t meet Dave, then I won’t fall in love with the most beautiful man on the face of the planet. Then he’ll die alone.’

He saw Ben in the corner of his eye, reaching out hesitantly as if to place a comforting hand on his shoulder and then drawing back when he realized he couldn’t touch.

“Klaus, we don’t have time for your dramatics. We have to stop our sister from hurting people,” Allison rolled her eyes. “Or us having to hurt her.”

“The more we do that we already did, the harder it will be to change how things play out,” Luther said, looking to Five who nodded slightly in confirmation.

“We could just kill them, now that we know they’re coming,” Diego suggested. “It’s not like they don’t already deserve it. And it’ll stop them from hurting all of their victims here.”

Klaus growled, throwing his arms up and storming away from his siblings, no longer caring about their plans to stop the end of the world and hoping to put as much distance between them before he broke down.

~

Later, Five found him, curled completely in on himself, sobbing like a baby. He instantly felt an unexpected protective instinct toward his ex-addict brother.

“You can’t save them, you know,” he said flatly.

Klaus looked up blearily through red-rimmed eyes and sniffled. “What are you talking about?”

“Whoever you’re so desperate to go back to hell for.”

“His name was Dave…”

“Alright, fine. Dave. Even if you go back, it still has to end the same way. Which I’m guessing is with you opening the briefcase to return to the present because Dave dies.”

“I was trying to go back again, not come back here.”

“Dave dies,” Five said again and Klaus flinched. “You can’t change that.”

“Why not? How is it different than what you’re trying to do?”

“Because _I_ am trying to stop the _Apocalypse._ It’s changing the future, events that haven’t happened. You want to change the past.”

“I doubt it’s going to alter the outcome of a goddamn war. It’s just saving one soldier who deserved better.”

“Exactly. He’s _just_ one soldier. He doesn’t matter. But— ” Five’s explanation was cut off by a wild swing and Klaus’s fist connecting with the side of his face.

The two fell into a tangle of limbs and rage, Five doing all he could just to get Klaus off of him, to not let his carefully-honed instincts kick in and cause him to hurt his brother, and Klaus determined to make someone else feel physically the pain that cut through his soul. 

“Don’t you dare!” he screamed. “Don’t you dare stand there all smug in your little pre-pubescent body and tell me that Dave didn’t matter!”

After another moment, Five managed to subdue Klaus and stand back up. He sighed indulgently, dusting off the lapels of his coat and looking up at the sky as if to ask God why he was saddled with this idiot.

“In the grand scheme of all time and the universe, your boyfriend doesn’t matter. But in the sense of his survival being the pebble in an avalanche, he’s crucial. And I’m sorry, but he has to die.”

Klaus rolled to his knees and sat with his face covering his hands. He was silent for a long moment then, and Five thought with relief that he might have finally gotten through.

“I still have to go back. Please. I…I _need_ to see him again. I need to…to be there…I need to see him again,” he began crying again, softer this time, face streaked with black from his heavy eye makeup. 

Five frowned. Was that actual sympathy and heartbreak he was feeling? He was surprised that he wasn’t completely numb to such feelings anymore, now that he was reunited with his family. 

“Even knowing how it’s going to end?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. I’ll see what I can do.”

“Five…don’t…don’t tell the others? They won’t understand.”

The smaller Hargreeves rested his hand gently on Klaus’s shoulder, feeling it shudder beneath his fingers. “I won’t.”


End file.
